Have you ever ate
yogurt? Well then you have consumed the bacteria Lactobacillus bulgaricus. Lactobacilli are bacteria are commonly
known for producing lactic acid. The lactic acid from
Lactobacillus bulgaricus is used in the production of yogurt. The
bacteria
can also help people that are lactose intolerant. It will
break down the lactose since they lack the enzyme, lactase,
which normally breaks lactose into simpler sugars. To aid in human
health they are also probiotics, which are beneficial bacteria in the
digestive tract. They
are rod-shaped and found in pairs or in long chains as seen in the photo
above. Lactobacillus bulgaricus was first discovered in 1905 by a
Bulgarian doctor, Stamen Grigorov, and named after the country. Later in 1983
studies done by Weiss, Schillinger, and Kandler changed the taxonomy of
Lactobacillus bulgaricus. It soon became a subspecies to Lactobacillus delbrueckii, along with
Lactobacillus lactis, and
Lactobacillus delbrueckii.